Hello, and welcome to what is likely Brad Herzog’s final subbing-for-Adam camp update. I feel a bit like “Fifth Beatle” Pete Best being replaced by Ringo Starr in ’62, but I’ll get over it.
Actually, speaking of creative substitutions… Today, I strolled down to the Art Shop and found a collection of campers transformed into architects and interior designers. They were sketching layouts of their dream homes. One house featured two elevators; another included a “chill room.” A third dream home boasted two IMAX theaters, a greenhouse, and a hot tub. And a fourth, well… I’ll let the 3rd grader explain: “This whole house is radiation-proof and explosion-proof. And if you get the first security code wrong, a tank comes in, you see…”
Overseeing all the creativity was one of our senior counselors, who usually works in the CNOC project and teaches kids how to tie knots and build fires. But in the “real world,” he happens to be an architecture student at the University of Sheffield in the U.K. So the Art Shop brought him in as a “guest artist” for the morning.
This merging of expertise and opportunity – creative synergy – is trending here.
One of the wonderful things about a Nebagamon summer is that we have staff members who commit themselves entirely to being experts for eight weeks. That is, they essentially reinvent themselves for a summer and focus entirely on making the experience work for scores of campers scurrying around the 77 acres. Few campers likely know, for instance, that in the real world our Lumberjack Village director works in mental health therapy with teenagers. Or that our Axeman Village director is earning his master’s degree in ceramics. Or that our Nature Lore director is heading to Boston to earn her law degree.
Of course, each of us is informed by the aggregate of our experiences. However, for the most part, for a summer, we separate what I’ll call our Outside Selves from our Camp Selves. But not always. This year, in particular, many of our project heads have found a way to incorporate guest expertise into the experience.
Last week at the Art Shop, I was the guest guy. In my non-camp life, I’m an author, but not everything I’ve written has been published (don’t get me started). In fact, I have one Shel Silverstein-ish collection of silly sports poems that has been sitting lonely in a drawer back in California. A very brief example:
My friend Suze was a bit confused.
“Let’s play hockey,” she said.
But it was summer. What a bummer!
So she swam in skates instead.
But now we’re going to “publish” the book of poetry. Last week, I brought a pile of poems to the Art Shop, and 26 campers served as… well, guest illustrators. They drew silly scenes about everything from fishing to boxing to baseball. We’re going to display the final product at camp’s Art Show in a few days. Also soon, one of our junior counselors – an aspiring filmmaker – is going to visit the Art Shop to oversee some puppet playmaking. Said one Art staffer, “We’re expanding the definition of art.”
This expansion has expanded throughout camp. Consider Nature Lore. Last week, our head of Orienteering joined the project to visit the ruins of an old lumber mill on camp’s property, a remnant from more than a century ago. Why? Because when he’s not at camp, he’s studying archaeology at the University of Iowa. So he taught the kids about proper excavation techniques, how to map a site, and how to interpret discoveries. Nature Lore has also joined with MOCA, our cooking project, to create Pine Needle Tee and with the unflappable full-timer who runs our camp office – he also used to be an environmental educator at the University of Georgia – for a session about… animal bones.
The Nature Lore director also incorporated the expertise of her twin brother, the Music project head, and they took a crew of campers on a “Sound Walk.” They discussed concepts like… What’s the difference between sound and music? Is sound actually music if it’s presented or interpreted that way? Heady stuff. They then visited several sites – Lorber Point, the Waterfront, mountain biking paths – in total silence. And they simply listened to nature’s melodies.
But Music has its own guest-expert gigs going on. Our intrepid project director is an audio engineer and music producer on the Outside. So one afternoon, he led a workshop about synthesizers and sampling. He’s planning another project period in which certain international staff members will introduce music from their home countries – the U.K., India, Denmark. And every Sunday afternoon, the campers are the experts: Sunday Music Sharing has them bringing in a favorite song, playing the recording for their peers, and explaining why they love it so much. To my delight, some of these choices have included Billy Joel’s “Vienna” and “Barbara Ann” by the Beach Boys. It makes me feel… less old.
Still, so far this summer, my favorite guest expert has been… a four-year-old. Perhaps I should explain:
Our always-creative CNOC director has a son with specific passions. So during an evening Special Interest (SI) activity – when the staff gets particularly creative – he announced “An SI Planned by a Four-Year-Old.” And indeed, it literally was. There were snacks (yogurt tubes and Cheerios)… and dance music (from “Paw Patrol”)… and games (from Jenga to checkers to Hoot Owl Hoot)… and a few slightly misspelled signs. The featured attraction: Hot Wheels races featuring a five-car racing lane constructed by the CNOC staff.
So about 40 campers showed up to basically celebrate the mind of a four-year-old. Then again, you’re never too young to be an expert – or for that matter, an architect, an archaeologist, or an illustrator. Anything is possible at Camp Nebagamon. Everything can be creative fodder. Everyone has an expertise to offer. And…
All is well in the North Woods…
